THE LAND DOWN UNDER

ok so first I'm gonna finish off the last few days at the MTC... Sister Skousen's Saturday night class was the most incredible thing, we started off with our weird energy, but then we ended on such a spiritual note it was incredible. I love her and the rest of our MTC teachers, offical and unofficial (teachers, will you send me the teachers that were teaching our new zones email, I lost the paper I wrote their emails down on) But our MTC teachers were honestly the greatest thing that could have ever happened to us! Shout out to Brother Trautman for helping so much with though provoking questions our 1st district meeting was focused on that so I smashed that! 

Gonna kinda fast forward to monday, sunday was rough. Bless your soul if you endured a fast Sunday in the MTC. But Monday was good, I was so sad to leave our cute kids behind, but they will smash it in Vegas and Colorado! We said bye to the rest of our Brizzy Missionaries and that was so sad, love you missionaries and talk about you all the time still! But anyways we finally left, we made it to SLC, then I ran into a familiar face, dad was at the front runner station, so funny cause i had a feeling something like that would happen! Dad youre a dork. but it was a good last hug for 18 months! I guess 17 now already! wild. We started our travels which weren't that bad at all honestly. A lot shorter than india, so i didn't mind it. On our flight to Auckland God knew that I needed to sit by someone cause the chairs weren't comfy at all. So the seat by E. Norman was open so i went and sat by him. I love him so much and his testimony and am so grateful he decided to stay out, cause he is a huge part of how much my testimony has grown so much. We chatted about life, and the future and decided we are gonna be neighbors down in Nephi with wrap around porches (yes by we  I mean i decided that pretty sure he doesn't wanna live anywhere near me) He is literally the greatest, anyways we landed in Auckland (Danny I will gladly move to New Zealand with you if its all as pretty as the view from the airport) it was gorgeous. We weren't there too long before we headed to Adelaide. I sat by E. Nelson on that flight, and man that kid is so smart and weird, and one of my favorite people. I'm excited to see all the work that he does here in the mission, i'm sure he is already baptizing everyone! That day when we landed we had food and orientation and it all dragged on for so long until we found out who our companions are and where we are serving.

drum roll

HERES THE GOOD STUFF.

my companion is Sister Buyanbadrakh (yeah we call her sister B, but her name isn't that hard to say) but she is from Mongolia, and she is so sweet, she goes home this transfer so I'll have two trainers! She always says that I'm so soft because i cry anytime anyone says the word testimony! also try not to laugh but... I am serving in the heart of Adelaide and.....

I'M LEARNING MANDARIN. Rip guys, honestly I don't know how I'm going to survive, we have had a few classes and I literally don't remember anything... send help, send prayers, i need it all. but another funny thing about where i'm serving is that its the loudest place on the planet honestly. AND I CAN'T HEAR A THING. LITERALLY NOTHING. We mainly talk to Asians cause there is such a huge culture of Asians at the Uni's here. but they talk so quiet so I know God is testing me. So please pray I get sent to Alice Springs or Darwin soon so I can actually hear. 

But anyways after we found out who our companions were we had a testimony meeting which was so special, and I loved it all. Hearing my districts testimonies one last time before we all split off to Darwin (Sister Randall and Elder Nelson) and Alice Springs (Elder Norman) that was rough cause i am going to miss them so much! But I am excited to hear about all the good work they do! Thankfully that night Sister Randall got to stay with us cause we had arrivers training the next day before they left to their new areas, so we got to have a sleepover that night, i love her! 

Thursday was arrivers training which was really good but really long. I couldn't handle it, I mean we just sat on a plane for hours the days before then we had to sit again all day in training. But it had to be done and I learned a lot so I am not complaining. After training we went finding! Sister R came with us but neither of us could talk to anyone because we have to have permits, and neither of us did yet. so Sister B did all the talking, and Sister Randall did all the listening, cause i couldn't hear a single word! 

Friday Sis Randall came finding with us again cause she was leaving for Darwin at 4, saying goodbye to her was so hard, I really hate goodbyes and was really sad because I didn't even get to say goodbye to my fave Elders either. But Sister Randall and I bawled, she is my favorite and we will serve around each other but right now we are literally on opposite ends of the mission. as far away from each other as we can get in the field and that kinda makes me sad! But also excited! she is incredible! Elder Norman was actually in the city that day too cause he wasn't leaving until Saturday morning, so I got to see him around the city. But funny story, as missionaries in the city you can't talk to each other, not even a wave or a hello. Its maybe just eye contact, a smile or a head nod. Weirdest thing. But E. Norman is king of crazy eyes and brows so it was funny to pass him because he couldn't really do anything like he had the 3 weeks past! I'll miss seeing the N Elders and Sister Randall everyday our district was perfect honestly! I am so jealous of them going to the warm quiet areas but I'll find out why President sent me to the city. its going to be rough, but all missions are right? Anyways After Sister R left I taught my first lesson! Moureen is a Recent Convert shes 17 and is so sassy! It was good and I loved it, it was short cause she was late, but shes so cute! 

On Sunday Bishop Scott asked me to bear my testimony in Sacrament... surprise surprise right? Not. But guess who cried?  ME again surprise right? BUT not only I cried a cute girl in the ward did too she said that it was very moving and touched her heart. After church we went and stood on Rundle Mall which is kinda like city creek center but its all open, no cover. While we were there I got asked if we were the Amish... (so close but so far sorry buddy) but best of all is i got asked for my personal number. Flattered to know I still got it even in my sister missionary clothes! Holla! just kidding, but after that we just went walking around the city again and found a girl who knew about our church cause of a friends friend. but what's funny is that she knew not what we believed but that we did food storage... how funny is that? mormons and food storage is apparently a big thing with the italian mormon that she met! 

yesterday was the queens birthday, but everyone hates the Queen here, so they just took the holiday off! We started off the morning finding on the street, we were in the miraclezone which means we found 5 potentials in under and hour, but also got 15 potentials that day! We decided to share a story of Christ in the contact instead of just giving them a pass along card and asking for their number, because we did that we were able to get 3 return appointments for this week! IT WORKED! We smashed it that morning! We had district meeting after that I had to give the thought so I shared D&C 67:3-4. I had read that that morning, then read my patriarchal blessing then read the scripture again and put the fear of not being able to hear aside and went for it. and we were in the miraclezone because of it. i relied on Sister B alot to kinda midcontact translate/ just repeat what they said so I can understand and hear. but also at the district meeting they talked so much about thought provoking questions and let me tell you i smashed that because we smashed it in the MTC (THANK YOU TEACHERS AGAIN). after district meeting we went to Rundle Mall again and we can split contact there so I didn't have to be with Sister B. But guess what the wildest thing happened. I got a potential investigators number all on my own. And yeah its impressive to do that, but what was even cooler is that it was an Aussie. NO ONE can get aussies numbers everyone just gets to talk to the Asians, so patting myself on the back for that one! hahah but here is another crazy story, we were finding at the end of the day and it just had a freak rain come out of no where, so funny and so much rain. so we decided to walk down King William instead of North Terrace road and we found a cute mandarin speaking lady! the rain led us to her, and thankfully sister b is actually really good at mandarin she was able to sort of talk to her and get her number so we could stay in contact.. Thank goodness for the rain! 

Today has been so great already! we went shopping and I finally can have some real food cause I'll ive been eating is peanut butter toast cause thats all we really had that I could eat! so thankful for real food. but while we were at the store there is an american section that had marshmallow fluff, reeses, and a whole bunch of other candy. such a small section and so funny because there are so many other better "american things" they could put there. 

BUT WILDEST THING YMAD FRIENDS YOU'LL DIE. guess what they have in the asian section

BOURBONS! same kind we had in india!! SO excited to finally eat some of those again! :)

its been a good almost week here in australia, doesn't really feel like australia cause i only ever hear asian accents and it kinda just seems like Salt Lake City. So hopefully i'll be able to contact more Aussies so I can hear the accent to be reassured that I am actually out of Utah! hahah

I love yall and miss you so much! send me emails and pics of what yall are doing this summer!! 

xoxo sister standage

Pictures to come next week. cause I can't use my smartphone yet cause we aren't "officially" a smart phone mission yet. RIP